Part II.—Kilkee to Carrigaholt

Lismaguine

Lismaguine.—Going westward, we find about 500 yards away a second fort. Though seemingly most insignificant and uninteresting even when seen from the field near it, it proves to be of unusual type, consisting of an unusually wide and deep fosse out of all proportion to its small size. The outer ring is rarely more than 4 feet high, and is much gapped, being only 6 feet thick at the field level. The fosse is dry, 8 feet deep below the field; from it the rings respectively rise, the outer 12 feet, the inner 15 feet, over the bottom, which is 10 feet wide, the fosse being 30 feet wide at the top; there is no gangway, so it was evidently crossed by a bridge. The garth is only 66 feet across; the fort is 150 feet E. and W. to about 180 feet N. and S. over all. There are two house sites inside adjoining the ring to the N. E., and measuring 23 feet by 15 feet and 15 by 10 feet respectively. One has recently been dug into, probably for imaginary treasure. The fort, as may be seen, is a slightly irregular oval in plan. Down to at least 1898, the rings were overgrown with tall, huge furze bushes, which made the fosse a green tunnel; they have since been burned to the roots. It is difficult to see how the earth from the deep fosse was utilized, as the garth is not raised, and the insignificant ring required very little material.

Plan of Lismaguine

These two forts [Lisheencrony & Lismaguine] are nameless on the 1839 maps. This fact, however, is no argument against the genunineness or age of the titles, for (not to go outside Clare) the great fort of Cahercommaun bore its name, not only in the mouths of the elder peasantry, but in records from 1585. Caherscrebeen, in Lemaneagh, so named in the will of the last Prince of Thomond in 1551; Caheridoula, named in an Inquisition of 1624; and many other fort names, known equally to the records and the modern peasantry, are nameless forts on the maps of that survey. ^[20]